50+ Ecommerce Statistics Retailers Need to Know in 2019

Data & Insights |
March 14, 2019 | 9 mins

E-commerce is growing at a 15% compound annual growth rate. That’s great news for e-tailers, both in terms of revenue and of data. The more ecommerce statistics you have to work with, the better you can benchmark and optimize your own ecommerce store’s performance.

That said, how do retailers make that data work for them? The sheer wealth of ecommerce statistics available can be overwhelming, identifying which sources are most reliable is tough, and organizing all the information out there takes time.

To help online retail teams leverage the data to make good decisions, we’ve gathered 50 ecommerce statistics from trustworthy sources, grouped them into common categories, and even included suggestions on how you can improve your own results.

These ecommerce statistics can help your retail team make better decisions about how to divide resources and where to direct your energies this year.

How to Improve Payment/Checkout Performance

Lifting checkout conversion rates is one of the biggest challenges retailers face, as evidenced by these ecommerce statistics. E-tailers need to innovate at points of sale in order to get the jump on their competitors.

Alternative financing is a powerful way to introduce innovation into the ecommerce funnel. Bread’s white-label software integrates with ecommerce platforms and allows consumers to spread payments over time with zero interest levied. This allows retailers to increase consumer purchasing power while reducing pain points around big-ticket purchases.

How to Improve Mobile Performance

M-commerce is the fastest-growing sector for online retail. This growth means that ecommerce retailers must prioritize mobile consumers, adopting the kind of mobile-first approach taken by web designers in the last few years.

Mobile-first ecommerce starts with addressing pain points around mobile shopping. Back in 2017, Comscore found that 20% of consumers cited security worries as their biggest barrier to buying on mobile. Retailers can go a long way towards allaying those worries through up-to-date technology:

Running your site on HTTPS rather than HTTP guarantees that consumer data stays safe.

Using a reputable ecommerce platform like Shopify or Magento means your ecommerce store is automatically PCI compliant, a guarantee that you’re handling credit card information in a secure environment.

How to Improve Email and Social Media Performance

As the stats show, social shopping is here to stay, especially among younger consumers. Ecommerce retailers that use social media to tell a strong brand story and create dynamic communities have a better chance of winning, and keeping, customers.

Start by finding out which network your highest Lifetime Value customers are using and strategize content specifically for that channel. For instance, if your target consumer is on Instagram, campaigns involving user-generated content may work well. You can see this strategy in action at online furniture store Wayfair, which asks shoppers to share images of their purchases with the hashtag #WayfairAtHome. The store then reposts these images with links to buy the items, maximizing social proof and social community.

Customer Support

73% of buyers indicate customer experience is an important factor in purchasing decisions. (source: SuperOffice)

51% of consumers trust companies that make it easy for customers to contact the company and their customer service reps. (source: KPMG)

82% of consumers defined an immediate response as “important” or “very important” when buying from a company, speaking with a salesperson, or asking a question about a product or service. (source: HubSpot)

59% of buyers expect a response within 30 minutes when they want to learn more about a business’ product or service. (source: HubSpot)

90% of customers rate an immediate response as important or very important when they have a support question. (source: HubSpot)

Almost half (49%) of consumers reported sharing an experience they had with a company on social media, good or bad. (source: HubSpot)

81% of consumers trust friends and family reviews over businesses. (source: HubSpot)

80% of consumers have said they stopped doing business with a company because of poor customer service. (source: HubSpot)

How to Improve Customer Support Performance

Customer support can turn a one-time shopper into a repeat customer. To optimize support, start by making return policies and other frequently asked questions easy to find and understand. Having clear, accessible information on your site for consumers will reduce your ticket load and relieve consumer pain points.

If consumers do need to get in touch, provide a 24/7 live chat support service. If that’s too much of a strain on the purse strings, a chatbot can relieve some of the strain during closing hours and field level-one customer queries. Find out more about conversational chatbots for support from Intercom.

AI

By 2020, it is estimated that about 50% of searches will be visual searches (like Syte) or voice search. (source: GeoMarketing)

By 2021, early adopter brands that redesign their websites to support visual and voice search will increase digital commerce revenue by 30%. (source: Gartner)

40% of consumers would be more willing to pay more for a product if they could experience it using AR. (source: Retail Perceptions)

It is estimated that by 2020, 80% of all customer-to-brand interactions will be over AI. (source: Apiumhub)

35% of consumers want to see more companies using chatbots. (source: ubisend)

How to Improve AI Performance

AI might seem like something that only the retailers with bottomless budgets can afford. But using off-the-shelf AI tools such as Syte can be an affordable way to introduce AI and machine learning into your ecommerce funnel.

Start by identifying where you want to leverage AI. For example, you could automate product recommendations based on purchase history; refine email campaigns based on interaction history; introduce search features that use natural-language processing and machine learning.

Rather than building these features from scratch, rely on existing AI tools that integrate easily with your ecommerce platform, such as Shopify’s range of AI add-ons. These give you the technical backup you need and are relatively painless to implement at scale.